


On the Run

by WestOrEast



Category: Original Work
Genre: Horror, Psychological Horror, Suspense
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-05
Updated: 2020-10-31
Packaged: 2021-03-01 03:28:15
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 5,529
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23488339
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/WestOrEast/pseuds/WestOrEast
Summary: Serena is an artist. That's all she really wants to be. But when her cat begins speaking to her, she doesn't have a choice anymore. And all she can do right now is start running.
Comments: 3
Kudos: 23





	1. Chapter 1

**On The Run**

  
I blinked, my gaze inexorably drawn back down to Luna. She stared back at me, her black tail slowly twitching back and forth.

There had to have been a radio broadcasting through the window. Or maybe I had just thought a thought so loudly it _seemed_ like a voice. I looked around, almost dragging my sleeve through the collection of paints to one side. I peered around the easel, wondering if there was something behind the mostly-blank canvas in front of me.

"Serena," the voice said again. "Serena, listen to me."

And once again, it came from Luna. Even though I wasn't hearing it with my ears, I could still tell the direction, and the _only_ thing in front of me was my cat. I swallowed nervously, standing up and circling around her. I was fifty years too young to become a crazy cat lady. Her head turned to follow me, the rest of her body, save for her tail, stock still.

"Serena," the voice, Luna, said again. "You need to leave the house. Immediately." She paused. "And take me with you."

I blinked and looked out the front window. The street was still and nearly empty. Old Mrs. Zucker was kneeling in her garden, but everything else was dead calm.

"Why?" I asked, then flushed.

If a voice you weren't really hearing talked to you, you shouldn't talk back. That was a sign that you were starting to lose it with a capital L. And a capital I, for that matter.

"You're in danger," the refined, British-esque voice said again, more insistently now. "You need to leave here, _now_."

"Don't be silly," I said, wincing at how wobbly my voice sounded.

I picked Luna up, cradling her to my chest. She kept on staring up at me, her amber eyes narrowed. I stepped back to the window.

"See?" I said, looking over Peters Street again. "Everything's just the way it should be."

I paused. Everything _was_ quiet and still. Even Mrs. Zucker had vanished. Her weed bag was still by her lillies, and her kneeling pad as well. But there was no sign of her. She must have gone inside for a drink. But her absence still sent a shiver down my spine.

"We need to leave," Luna said, her voice louder. "It's too late to go to your car. We have to go through the garden gate."

Now there was a flicker of movement. A car appeared as Luna was talking, right at the very limit of what I could see from my window. It slowly crawled up the street, the sun shining on the pure white hood. I couldn't see through the windshield.

Luna squirmed in my grasp, turning her head to look out the window as well. All of the fur along her body fluffed up and she wiggled out of my arms. She started running as soon as she hit the floor, heading through my studio to the back of my house.

I watched her go, still not quite sure if I was hallucinating or not. Then a flicker of movement caught my eye. The white car was closer now, still steadily moving up the street towards me. I still couldn’t see through the windshield.

Then I realized, as it pulled up right in front of my house, that I couldn’t see through the windows, either. Not even like they were tinted, just like glossy paint had been applied to metal. And the wheels weren’t turning either. The car was moving, slowing to a stop right in front of the sidewalk that led to my house, and the tires weren’t turning a _bit_.

Instantly, I knew that everything Luna was saying was right. I turned around, not wanting to still be by the window when the door opened. I blundered into my house, almost knocking over the easel and the picture I had spent all morning painting. I could see Luna standing right at the back door.

“Hurry!” Luna snapped, her voice in my head insistent and demanding. “Now, Serena!”

I grabbed my shoes and my purse where they stood in the hall that bisected the house. Then, my hands full, I burst out of the back door, not even feeling the small stones of the path biting into my bare feet.

Even through the pounding in my heart, I could hear a knocking on the front door. I glanced over my shoulder, through the back door and down the dark hallway that led straight to the front door. The glass panel at the door was obscured by a shape.

I turned my head back and kept on running to the gate. Luna was keeping pace with me, bounding forward, her tail stretching out behind her. When she got to the gate, she just leapt up, claws scrabbling on the wooden post, and was over it before I could even jam my hand against the latch.

Then I was through, following her into the path that ran along the edge of Pick’s Creek. The asphalt felt better on my bare feet than the gravel did, but as soon as I took a few steps onto the trail I collapsed to my knees.

“What are you doing?” Luna asked, her voice urgent, and her lips not moving a _bit_. “We can’t stop!”

“I just,” I gasped, kneeling down, “need to get my shoes on!”

That only took a few seconds, but my heart was still pounding, worried that at any second I was going to feel a hand grabbing me. I looked over my shoulder, and heard the creak of my back door as it swung open. I was below the level of the fence, so I couldn’t see who was there. And they couldn’t see me.

I crawled along on my hands and knees, feeling a cold sweat breaking out all over my skin. I couldn’t hear anything, just the burble of the creek below me and the sound of the wind in the trees. I didn’t dare to look back. I stared ahead at Luna as she raced forward, stopping to turn and look at me once she was a few dozen yards away.

As soon as I reached the Watson’s property, I sprang to my feet, glad for the first time since I moved here that they had planted tall, thick hedges. I took off running, _knowing_ that my shoes were slapping on the paved trail, and not caring.

I didn’t know how far I was going to have to run. I didn’t know who or what was chasing me. I didn’t know _why_ I was being chased. I didn’t know a single thing.

And in some ways, that was the worst part of all of this.

That thought made me turn my head, looking back along the path. I wanted to see _something_. _Anything_. Even if it was terrible, something that would give me nightmares, it would still be better than the awful sense of dread clinging to me like a thick, wet shroud.

There was a man on the path, thirty yards or more behind me. I gave a choking gasp as I saw him standing there, looking at me. He was wearing dark clothing, and he was far enough away that all I could tell was that he had white skin and dark hair. I couldn’t see a single detail of his face at all.

And now he was coming after me. In long, relentless strides, one after another, the leaves swirling around his feet. His gait seemed all wrong, not like how he should move at all. Choppy and rigid, like there was some giant hand lifting his leg up into half a dozen positions like an animation. I told myself that it was just distance and fear that was making me see that. Then I turned my head back around and started running even faster.

Luna was still in front of me, moving up and down like a boat at sea as she ran. How could she keep this up for so fast and for so long? It felt like I was dying as I ran, my feet slapping against the concrete, wobbling from side to side.

My heart was screaming inside of my chest and my lungs felt like I was breathing molten metal. How far had I gone? How much farther was there to go? Was he, it, gaining on me? I didn’t dare turn my head to look, for so many reasons.

The blood was pounding in my ears like the beating of some giant drum. The only thing I could hear over it was my own panting. At any second, I expected a hand to grab my shoulder, throw me down or turn me around to look at- I didn’t know what and I didn’t want to know.

“This way!” Luna called out, turning as the trail intersected Popular Street. “Get out where people can see you!”

I did so, turning onto the sidewalk, surrounded by suburban houses, cars parked in front of them. I stared at them with wide eyes, feeling like I was dying as I ran, slowing down. Not even the thought of what could be behind me could let me continue.

“Please, Luna,” I gasped, sinking to my hands and knees, gulping for air and feeling sweat running all over my body. “I can’t, I can’t keep going.”

Luna turned around, bounding back up to me. She looked over my shoulder as I clutched my chest through my blouse, feeling my heart thudding faster than it had in years. My legs ached, and it seemed that there wasn’t a single bone left in them.

“Get up, Serena!” Luna said, reaching forward and laying a single paw on my curled up fist. “Come on, just a little bit more.”

“Why?” I moaned as I started forward, half-crawling at first as I pushed myself upwards, grabbing onto a fence post for support. “Why is this happening to me?”

“I’ll tell you later,” Luna said, looking behind me. “You’re almost to safety, Serena! Just a few yards more!”

I glanced behind me. There was nobody there. I looked in front of me. There was _nobody_ there. It was like Luna and I were the only people left in the world.

I staggered forward, weaving from side to side like a drunkard. It was like a dream, but I couldn’t wake up. My body was covered in sweat, I felt my heart pounding in my chest, I was breathing so hard I felt like throwing up. And I still forced myself to keep going, even breaking into a half-hearted jog for a few yards before slowing down so quickly I almost fell over my own feet.

The car came at me so fast I barely even realized it was passing me. I gasped, and almost screamed, feeling the air rushing over me. My heart suddenly beat faster in my chest as I stared at it moving down the street, before I realized that it was just a car. Just a battered minivan with bumper stickers in the back window. I could see into it, I could see the lady driving it looking down at her lap and then out at the house.

And that was _it_. She was hesitating a bit and there were dings and dents in the car and I didn’t have any reason to give her a second look. Looking behind me, four or five blocks away, I could see cars whizzing back and forth along the main street this one fed off of.

I sank downwards, lying flat on my back, staring up at the sky and feeling the hard concrete underneath me. That was it. This had to be it. I just couldn’t go any further. And with the car there, surely I was safe? Things had to be back to normal if there was a car with a cheesy bumper sticker around, right? Bad things couldn’t happen to me when I was looking at a bit of sticky plastic advertising the local gospel station.

I heard the little kitty sounds of Luna walking up to me. She sat down right in front of my head, looking at me upside down. I reached out to her, my arm trembling.

“Please, Luna,” I gasped, my voice so raw I could barely even understand myself. “Please, no more.”

“It’s gone, Serena,” Luna said, nodding her head in a human gesture that looked so _strange_ on her feline body. “For now.”

For now? I groaned, clutching my head in my hands. This was going to happen again? When? Where? What was I going to _do_? What did it want? How could I get away?

What had I done to deserve this?


	2. Chapter 2

**On The Run Chapter Two**

  
I scooped Luna up and hugged her against me, feeling her soft, furry body pressing against my face. It was calming, something I had done plenty of times when I was stressed over the bills or a difficult painting or whatever. Never anything like this, but oh _well_. I was going to take what I could get.  
  
I could feel the sweat gradually cooling over my body, which was _not_ a very nice sensation. My heart was slowing down from the pounding inside of my chest. I shivered and hugged Luna a bit closer to me. She didn’t say anything or even purr. Or even struggle.  
  
“Oh, it’s, um, Ms. Sebastian, isn’t it?”  
  
I looked up from Luna’s black belly. There was a girl standing right in front of me, looking at me curiously. I _knew_ her and tried to get my brain into gear so I could recall her name. We were standing right in front of her house, I should be able to figure this out!  
  
“Yes, but just call me Serena,” I said automatically, finally remembering her name. “And you’re Su-Ji, aren’t you?”  
  
“That’s right,” she said, nodding and smiling a bit. “Are you,” she glanced down at Luna and frowned a bit, “taking a cat out for a walk?”  
  
“Ah ha ha,” I laughed, trying to put as much humor into it as I could and not doing a very good job of it. “No, I’m just…” I just ran out of my house because there was a creepy car and a strange man chased after me before _I_ managed to outrun him, I thought and didn’t say. “Just out and about, you know?”  
  
Su-Ji was a teenage girl, a few inches shorter than me. She was obviously just coming back from school, with her backpack slung over one shoulder. I had met her and her parents, the Kim’s, a time or two ever since I had moved to the neighborhood early last year, at block parties and the like. But I didn’t really _know_ her that well.  
  
But right now, I was desperate for some contact with people. Something nice and normal that wouldn’t mean that the world was twisting in on itself and that cars could only move when their wheels turned and everything was the way it should be.  
  
“Actually,” I said, rubbing my throat and frowning as I shifted Luna to one arm, “would you mind if I came inside for a glass of water?”  
  
“Sure thing,” Su-Ji said, staring down at Luna. “Can I hold your cat?”  
  
If _that_ was the price I had to pay, it was a really cheap price. I smiled and transferred Luna over to Su-Ji’s arms. As I did so, Luna looked up at me. There was something about the set of her eyes that told me that I hadn’t just been hallucinating her talking to me. Not one bit.  
  
Su-Ji was busy petting and cooing to Luna as she led me inside her family’s house. I looked around. Even though the house itself was American (or Western, I supposed) in it’s layout, the decoration was pretty Eastern (or Korean, since that’s where the Kim’s were from.) It was all very exotic, although I supposed it was quite normal to them.  
  
I kicked off my shoes after seeing Su-Ji do the same. I followed her into the kitchen as she petted Luna, who was starting to purr and go limp in Su-Ji’s arms. I sat down heavily on one of the kitchen chairs and rubbed my face with both hands, propping my elbows up on the kitchen table.  
  
I glanced up as Su-Ji turned on the radio and started tapping her foot to the music. She set Luna down on the floor and poured two glasses of water. She took one for herself and slid the other across the table to me. I took it and drained almost the entire glass in a few gulps. I hadn’t realized I was that thirsty.  
  
“It’s a nice place you have here,” I said politely, feeling my heart slowly starting to calm down inside of my chest.  
  
“Yeah, it’s okay,” Su-Ji said, giving a quick glance to the surroundings. “So what _were_ you doing taking your cat out for a walk, anyway?” As she talked, she bent down to start petting Luna again, who seemed to enjoy the attention.  
  
The radio suddenly turned itself off. Both Su-Ji and I glanced at it, frowning. She leaned over it, spinning the tuning dial this way and that. There was nothing, not even static. But I could see that there was still a green light glowing, so it was still getting power.  
  
“That’s weird,” Su-Ji said to herself, flicking it on and off. All that changed was if the light glowed or not. “Huh, never seen that before.”  
  
I looked at the radio, my throat suddenly getting tighter. I took another sip of water, glancing down at Luna. She was sitting upright now, carefully studying the radio. Then her head turned to look at me. She shook her head back and forth and then turned to look at the door.  
  
“Well,” I said, standing up suddenly, fully agreeing with Luna that something bad was about to happen, “thank you for the water, Su-Ji, but I’ve got to get going.” I started towards the door, Luna right on my heels. “If you ever want to come over and pet Luna, feel free, but it’s-“  
  
There was a knock at the door. I stopped dead in my tracks, staring at the wooden door. I couldn’t see anything beyond it, but my heart started to hammer in my chest. The knock repeated itself.  
  
“Now what?” Su-Ji groused, slipping past me. “It’s probably those Mormons again.” She opened the door even as I tried to get my throat to work and tell her not to. “Yeah, what… is… it…”  
  
The man in the suit was standing at the doorway. I had just enough time to realize that there was a white face and black suit before I turned around and started running. There was a staircase right next to me and I dashed up it, my bare feet pounding on the steps as I hurried up it and went through the very first door I could see. I could hear sounds behind me, suddenly muffled as I slammed the door shut.  
  
The door handle rattled back and forth and it started to open. I gasped and slammed myself against the door, a dull jolt of pain running through me as it slammed back shut. My hands fumbled with the door knob before I could wrap them around it and twist it. And thank god, there was a button lock! I jammed my thumb against it, locking the door and pressing myself up against it.  
  
My heart was hammering in my chest and I could feel cold sweat breaking out all over my skin again. I stared at the fake wood of the door, gasping for air. I jerked back as a heavy thump landed on the door. And another and another. I swallowed heavily as I stared, wondering if the door was going to start to splinter. Then there was silence.  
  
“Ser…ena,” Su-Ji’s voice came from the other side of the door. I gasped, my eyes growing wide. “He says… he says you have… to come with him.”  
  
“Su-Ji, are you alright?” I shouted, still holding onto the door knob so tightly my fingers were starting to hurt. “Can you get away?”  
  
“He says…” Su-Ji’s voice was slow and heavy, like she was drugged or dazed, “you need to… open the door.”  
  
I shook my head back and forth. No, I wasn’t _ever_ going to do that. Not in a million years. I glanced down as I felt Luna winding around my legs, looking up at me. She nodded, before going deeper into the room, looking around at what had to be Su-Ji’s bedroom.  
  
“There is a ladder… in the shed,” Su-Ji said, her voice sounding a bit more muffled now. “It will reach.”  
  
I gasped, my eyes darting towards the window. Already, I could hear footsteps on the other side of the door, going down the stairs. I only had a few minutes. If I stayed here, I was going to hear the thump of a ladder resting against the wall and then in the window I was going to see-  
  
I ran to the window, looking down. The window was set into the roof a bit, with a foot or so of roofing tile running down to the gutter. I could get out of here.  
  
And I did. I rammed the window open, knocking out the safety screen before climbing out onto the roof. I winced as I felt the rough shingles biting into my bare feet. And then I heard the back door open.  
  
I quickly clambered higher up onto the roof, going over the peak and down the front side. Out of the corner of my eye, I could see Luna following me. As I crossed over, I glanced over my shoulder, but couldn’t see anything but a fenced-off suburban lawn, most of it cut off by the rise in the roof.  
  
I turned my attention back front as I started to slide down the roof, hands scraping roughly at the bumpy shingles as I went down. Thankfully, the angle of the roof leveled out to accommodate the porch in front of the house, so I didn’t roll straight off the roof and onto the ground.  
  
And land in front of the car. It was the same shiny car I had seen outside my front window, parked in the driveway. It seemed to _loom_ , taking up all the available space, even from my position a yard above it. I still couldn’t see through the windows and I didn’t think that there was a way _to_ see through them, no matter how bright the light.  
  
A second-story window behind me opened. I didn’t turn my head to look and instead half-ran, half-crouched towards the side of the porch. As I dropped down to the grass, I could hear the car start up, the engine going from a dead silence to a throaty roar.  
  
I couldn’t go back up. There was a wall behind me and a fence to tall to climb in front of me. _Something_ was in the back yard. The only option I had was to go past the car and out into the street.  
  
All of that flashed through my mind in an instant, quicker than thought. It was my body reacting, deciding what it needed to do without me, without _Serena_ , deciding a single thing.  
  
I sprinted towards the car, going as fast as I could, using everything inside of me. I didn’t even have time to call out for Luna. I didn’t even know if she had made it off the roof with me.  
  
The white car didn’t lunge at me, tires squealing like I had thought it would. Instead, as I ran past the hood, the front passenger door swung open, right in front of my path.  
  
I slammed into it, slammed it shut even as I rolled onto the ground, clutching my stomach and moaning as I felt the air get knocked out of me. I hadn’t seen the inside of the car as the door opened and I didn’t _want_ to see it.  
  
Instead, I climbed to my feet, instinctively grabbing at the door of the car to haul myself upwards. It didn’t feel _right_ , not at all. But I didn’t have time to think about what it actually felt like. Instead, I forced myself forward at a shambling trot, shoulders heaving, heart pounding, stomach aching as I tried to catch my breath, tried to get enough air into my lungs to keep on running like I needed to.  
  
The hot concrete against my feet didn’t feel good and actually helped me pick up speed to get rid of the feeling. I rounded the corner of the fence separating the Kim’s house from their neighbors and kept on running, getting farther away from home with every step.  
  
My head twitched, just enough that I could look over my shoulder. I couldn’t see anything. Not the rear of the car, too far up the driveway to be seen as I ran. Not a… man chasing after me. And not a small black streak, low to the ground.  
  
I turned my head back around and kept on running. Even as I did so, I realized that I couldn’t outrun a car. I needed to get off the road.  
  
There was a house with a line of shoulder-high decorative trees running along the front of the property. I dashed in between them, almost knocking the white wooden gate off of its hinges as I burst through. Then I immediately turned to my left and fell to the ground, pressing the entire front of my body against the warm grass as hard as I could.  
  
I could hear the car engine revving up and drawing closer. I closed my eyes and moaned in fear, my stomach churning like I was going to throw up. It drew closer and closer, going at an agonizingly slow pace. I buried my face against the grass and tried to cover my ears, as if I could make it go away by not seeing or hearing it.  
  
It didn’t work like that but the car or the driver or Su-Ji (the thought of her made my stomach twitch all over again) must not have seen me. The sound of the car’s engine slowly drew further and further away as I stayed face down on the grass, silently begging anyone or anything to not let it find me.  
  
I stayed like that long after the sound of the car had been overlaid by _other_ cars as the normal suburban sounds filtered back in. I had no idea how long I spent pleading and silently crying before I dared to lift my head.  
  
Nothing happened. There was no suited figure standing over me. Not even the owner of the house, wondering what was going on. That gave me the courage to actually stand up all the way and look over the tree tops.  
  
There was nothing on the street. There was nothing on the sidewalk. There was no sign of anything out of the ordinary. I sighed and slumped back down, pressing a hand against my chest and feeling how my heart was pounding and my clothes sticking to my skin from the cold sweat that had drenched my body.  
  
And now- I couldn’t think about what to do now. All I could do was sit and breathe and twitch and feel the cold, clammy hand that was squeezing down around my heart slowly relax its grip.  
  
“Serena!”  
  
My head whipped around. In between the trunks of two of the trees, peering up at me, was Luna. Brown specks of dirt clung to her face, but she was _there_.  
  
“Luna!” I gasped, my voice breaking halfway through her name. I grabbed her and hugged her up against my chest, burying my face in the fur along her back. “I’d thought I’d lost you.”  
  
“Not yet, child,” Luna said, her voice tense but warm. “I’m glad to see that you’re okay, Serena.”  
  
I could feel myself calming down a _bit_ as I stroked Luna’s fur, feeling the silky soft cat fur underneath my fingers. My heart was still pounding in my chest and I started to creep along the property line, getting away from the road. I hoped that the owner of the house didn’t look out to see my here, but the lights in the house were dark and I couldn’t recall seeing a car in the driveway.  
  
Once I was behind the house, I sat down with a sigh, letting Luna drop down to the ground. I wrapped my arms around my body and gave my body a tight hug. I realized that I was shivering and couldn’t stop. I looked over at Luna, who was cleaning herself off in front of me.  
  
“Luna, what _was_ that? What did it do to Su-Ji?”  
  
“I,” Luna sighed and looked away from me. “I don’t know what happened to the girl or if she will recover from it. I hope so but I don’t _know_.”  
  
“What _do_ you know, Luna?” I asked, feeling lost and confused and suddenly _angry_. What had I done to deserve this? Nothing, so _why_ was I being chased by some sort of monster? It wasn’t _fair_ , not at all. “ _How_ do you know it? How are you _talking_ , Luna?”  
  
“That-,” Luna paused and started to walk back and forth in front of me, her tail swishing back and forth. “That’s not easy to say and we don’t have much time. It will already have started searching for you and it will find you again, especially if you stay in one spot so close to where it last was.” I looked around, cold sweat starting to form on my body. I couldn’t see or hear anything. “I can say that I want to help you, Serena and to get you back to your home and take up your life again.” She paused again. “As for how I know these things, let’s just say that I’m not a normal cat, alright?”  
  
That actually made me laugh. It was more of a bark of disbelief than anything _funny_ but I still wouldn’t have thought that I could ever have laughed again as I stared down at Luna. She levelly stared back at me.  
  
“Y-Yeah, I know you’re not a normal cat, Luna,” I said. “You’re _talking_.” For a moment, the insane idea that _all_ cats could talk came to me but I shook it off. There was just no way that was true. “How are you talking?”  
  
“Through magic, just like magic is being used to hunt you, Serena,” Luna said, sounding a bit testy. “Now we need to go.”  
  
“We need to go back to the Park’s house,” I said with a wince. “I can’t keep running around outside in bare feet.  
  
I said that, but I didn’t want to do it. I _really_ didn’t want to do it. What if the ‘man’ was still there? What if Su-Ju was still there? Even worse, what if she _wasn’t_? There wasn’t a single good option, including cutting my feet to bits on gravel and rusty nails and stuff.  
  
There wasn’t a path running along the backs of the houses here, just other houses on the other side of the fences. I swallowed deeply and started for the street again, scooping up Luna as I went. It made me feel a bit better, at least, to be holding her against me.  
  
There was nobody on the street. That was good, I supposed. Good enough. I swallowed and started back for the Park’s house as quickly as I could on my stinging feet.  
  
“Why is this happening to me?” I asked, feeling torn between crying and smashing a window. “What did I ever do to anyone? I’m just an _artist_.”  
  
“It’s because you’re an artist that you’re being hunted,” Luna said softly, resting a little kitty paw on my shoulder as she looked up at me. “They, it, wants you because you’re such a creative, imaginative person.”  
  
I wanted to ask Luna more about that, about what that _meant_ , but there was no time. We were here. I was standing outside the Park’s house. The driveway was empty and the front door was hanging ajar. The blank, black windows looked out at me, with nothing moving inside. I swallowed, my entire body tensing up as I stared. The house looked _bad_. It looked really, really bad.  
  
I looked around. Nobody. Nothing. When was that going to change? I looked back at the house and nothing had changed.  
  
“Don’t worry, Serena,” Luna said, her voice firm. “You just need to get inside and get your shoes. You left them right by the front door. In and out, it won’t even take three seconds.”  
  
“R-right,” I said, taking a deep breath and walking forward along the soft grass. “I can do this.”  
  
I _had_ to be able to do this.


End file.
